Wintertime in Texas

[Backbone Ranch]

Knock on wood, it has been a relatively mild winter here so far. We have gotten several slow, steady rains over the last few months. Not enough to fill the ponds, but enough to saturate the ground and get some winter grass growing. Our spring calves are due to start hitting the ground in 6 weeks or so. We AIed a little over a dozen head last summer, and used BB Backbone's General as clean-up and for live cover over the rest of the herd. This year, we had our largest group of heifers to breed and split them between BB Backbone's General and BB Backbone's Brigadier. Brigadier is a rising 2 year old son of Cadella Park Golden Boy and out of our oldest BB Uncle Tony daughter. This is his first group of females.

BB Backbone's Brigadier with his heifers


Part of the spring calving cow herd


BB Sapphire: A rising 7 year old daughter of MCC Trigger's Champion, an older USA bred Murray Grey bull that was born in 1979. She was AIed to Cadella Park Golden Boy and exposed to BB Backbone's General for clean-up. She raised a phenomenal General heifer calf this past year.


DH Corrine: A 13 1/2 year old 50% Murray Grey x Angus cow. She was part of our first purchase of Murray Greys back in 2011, and has been a tremendous producer for us ever since. We AIed her last year to Coronation Snowman, and she was turned out with General afterwards; she is due to calve again this spring.


These next 2 cows are 2019 and 2018 daughters of DH Corrine. They are both 75% Murray Grey and sired by our last herd bull, BB Uncle Tony.


A granddaughter of DH Corrine, and out of a full sister to the two cows above. BB Azalea is a 10 month old daughter of BB Backbone's General. She has been a favorite since she was a young calf.


BB Backbone's General: He will be turning 8 years old this March, and has been our primary herd bull for the last few years. He is currently breeding a small group of heifers for us right now. The consistency of his progeny, both bulls and heifers, has brought our program forward considerably. His sire, Monterey Marshall, is renowned for producing stellar females and is one of our all-time favorite AI sires.

 

[TCRanch]

Gawd, I love when you post pics of your gorgeous cattle! Maybe because I'm surrounded by black hides every day

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

TC - I agree. Backbone Ranch has great cattle - I don't care what breed you compare them to - they are just flat good cattle. Congrats on your success.

 

[TwoByrdsMG]

Fine herd you've got there.

Hoping the GB and Snowman's stuck- if not then General will prove why he's still the SR sire there. We've only had a couple General calves so far but both were seedstock quality.

 

[Rancher]

Excellent cattle, you are doing everything right. Great record keeping helps, eh?

 

[50/50Farms]

Knock on wood, it has been a relatively mild winter here so far.

Great, now that you said it it'll get cold as hell.

 

[50/50Farms]

Also +1 on damn fine cattle.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

I really appreciate the feedback! This is our 12th year with the Murray Greys, and I have to say that we are extraordinarily happy with them. We have been keeping back the majority of our heifers for the last few years and when we get this group of 2022 heifer calves into production, I believe we will hit our goal for herd size for the land that we have.

There are a handful of breeders, TwoByrdsMG being one of them, who have spearheaded the efforts to work at getting some newer Murray Grey genetics imported from Australia within the last year or two, and I am very excited about the possibilities that that will bring. There has not been much new blood brought over from Australia for close to 20 years now, and as a result, the pool of genetics here in the US is not very diverse. We have been incorporating a handful of the "older style" Murray Grey bulls from the 70s and 80s into our breeding program for the last 7 or 8 years now, and they have been great for us. I am looking forward to seeing how some of those females cross with the new Australian sires.

 

[TwoByrdsMG]

I really appreciate the feedback! This is our 12th year with the Murray Greys, and I have to say that we are extraordinarily happy with them. We have been keeping back the majority of our heifers for the last few years and when we get this group of 2022 heifer calves into production, I believe we will hit our goal for herd size for the land that we have.

There are a handful of breeders, TwoByrdsMG being one of them, who have spearheaded the efforts to work at getting some newer Murray Grey genetics imported from Australia within the last year or two, and I am very excited about the possibilities that that will bring. There has not been much new blood brought over from Australia for close to 20 years now, and as a result, the pool of genetics here in the US is not very diverse. We have been incorporating a handful of the "older style" Murray Grey bulls from the 70s and 80s into our breeding program for the last 7 or 8 years now, and they have been great for us. I am looking forward to seeing how some of those females cross with the new Australian sires.

Got two more AUS bulls lined up this year and some embryos in the works. I am excited to see what these new AUS bulls can do for the American breeders.

We are also thankful to see the diverse Heritage genetics being used within your herd and look forward to our first calf from Golden Boy (due next week).